OBS Discussion Forum

"Marketing Online" by Marcia Yudkin

Message on April 11, 1996

Here is a new approach I've tested and verified after completing
Marketing Online.

The Internet has a distinctive format for information files
that you can use to your advantage. If you can package an
authoritative set of questions and answers about your area
of expertise using this format, a lot of potentially
lucrative free online (and offline) publicity could come your
way.

Step one in utilizing this opportunity is familiarizing
yourself with the format and spirit of FAQs. On the World
Wide Web, you can find an alphabetical archive of FAQs at
http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq. You can also
read FAQs that are posted regularly to the newsgroup news.answers.
Some of these are actual compilations of frequently asked
questions from a particular Internet newsgroup, but others
are not. While you are browsing the collection, check to
see if anyone has yet covered the subject you're
considering.

Step two is to collect, write and organize a set of
questions and answers. Use the "schmoozing" techniques
described elsewhere in Marketing Online to work in very subtle
references to your company and your expertise. Format your
collection of questions and answers in the conventional FAQ
format and give it an informative title.

Step three is to post your "draft" FAQ wherever
appropriate, in relevant Internet newsgroups and on the
online services. At this stage, I set mine up on mailbots
at fl@yudkin.com and prinfo@yudkin.com and invited people
to check them out and give me feedback. Not one of the dozens
of people who offered suggestions, comments and compliments
in the first few weeks of this process objected to the
promotional material I tacked on at the end. Rather, two people
offered to post the FAQs at no cost to me at their Web sites, and
another person volunteered to automate one's regular posting
to a certain newsgroup for me. Allow several months for
this stage to allow valid criticisms to surface.

Step four is to issue a press release to relevant print media
about the FAQ. I also said I would send a printout of the FAQ
file by mail for free to anyone who sent me a self-addressed
stamped envelope with 78 cents postage. I'm beginning now to
see the fruits of print publicity in several magazines for
writers and office workers.

Step five is to retrieve the guidelines for the FAQ about
FAQs from http://www.cis.ohio-state.edu/hypertext/faq and
to submit your FAQ officially so that it can be posted
regularly to the newsgroup news.answers and included in the
official FAQ archive.

And then, congratulations! You will then have become an
official net.personality!

Remember, to look at samples FAQs that I created, send any
E-mail message to fl@yudkin.com (The Freelance Writing FAQ)
or to prinfo@yudkin.com (the Small Business Publicity FAQ).